Page 112 of Filthy Twisted Devil

“No,” Luke says. “It’s not funny.”

“I’d fucking say so.” Wade doesn’t yell. It’s scarier that he doesn’t yell, because he manages to make a level voice menacing. “I signed a contract with you. We’re locked into years of doing business together, you buying my grain, built on a lie my little sister made up.”

“She didn’t.”

“Don't bother denying it,” Wade scoffs. “I know what I heard.”

“I can't deny it was fake when it started,” Luke continues. “But it’s not anymore. It hasn’t been fake for a long time. I’m in love with your sister and I plan to date her for real. And I’m not telling you this because we got caught. I’m telling you because you did put your trust in me, so you deserve to hear the truth from me.”

Wade doesn’t answer right away. I suck in a breath, waiting to hear my brother send Luke running.

“I need to think,” he says finally.

A few silent moments follow, where I can’t tell what might be happening. Then, Luke walks back through the barn door alone. His eyes meet mine before looking over my shoulder, where every one of our friends has huddled behind me. They don’t even pretend they weren’t listening.

“I’m guessing you heard that,” he says drily.

“I tried to stop her,” James says, earning a glare from me. Anger is good right now, something simple and tangible I can wrap my hands around. It’s easier than all the complicated, thorny feelings.

Pure, intense joy at Luke saying he loves me, mixed with regret that he didn’t get to say it to me first. Guilt over lying to my brother, and the shitty way he found out.

Then there’s Brinley, who’s standing at the back of the group. Her jaw is tight from clenching her teeth, and her hands are balled into tight fists. My gaze slides over to her, and my stomach clenches. I had my chance to tell her the truth at the bachelorette party, and I didn’t. I thought I’d have time, and I was so catastrophically wrong.

I open my mouth to say something, to apologize for making her wedding such a mess, but she shakes her head.

“I need some air,” she says.

She heads for the front door and I follow her. “I can go with you, Brin. We can talk, and⁠—”

“No,” she snaps, her dark eyes flashing. “Stay. You’ve helped enough.”

She shoves open the barn door and walks away.

You’ve helped enough. From anyone else, it would just be anger. From Brinley, who thanked me for this wedding a hundred times in the last month, it’s a door closing.

Beau chases after her, not bothering to look back at us. His only focus is his fiancée. Beyond them, I can see Wade stalking back up to the house. Obviously, all my brothers are about to know the truth.

Suddenly, breathing feels impossible. I’ve made a mess of everything and the wedding is two days away.

Some event planner I turned out to be.

48

EDEN

“Ithink we should give these two a minute,” Maura says, breaking the silence in the barn. “Let’s go back to the house. I think we might be done here.”

Everyone falls in line, because Maura has those mom superpowers now where she gives orders and everyone follows them, no questions asked. Luke and I are left alone in the barn. His arms wrap around me the second the barn door closes.

“Are you okay?” he asks, rubbing a soothing hand up and down my spine.

My fingers crawl up his shirt and clench it in my fists, pulling him closer. That’s when I realize that I’m shaking. My fingers are trembling, and my whole body feels weak. Pressure builds behind my eyes, threatening tears, but I’m still too overwhelmed to let them fall.

“No,” I whisper. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.”

“I know.”

“Brinley was never supposed to get hurt. My brothers weren’t supposed to find out. We planned it for so long, and just like that—god, they know everything.”